Revealing Eden Review

320 pages
Release date: January 10th, 2012

Eden Newman must mate before her 18th birthday in six months or she'll be left outside to die in a burning world. But who will pick up her mate-option when she's cursed with white skin and a tragically low mate-rate of 15%? In a post-apocalyptic, totalitarian, underground world where class and beauty are defined by resistance to an overheated environment, Eden's coloring brands her as a member of the lowest class, a weak and ugly Pearl. If only she can mate with a dark-skinned Coal from the ruling class, she'll be safe. Just maybe one Coal sees the Real Eden and will be her salvation her co-worker Jamal has begun secretly dating her. But when Eden unwittingly compromises her father's secret biological experiment, she finds herself in the eye of a storm and thrown into the last area of rainforest, a strange and dangerous land. Eden must fight to save her father, who may be humanity's last hope, while standing up to a powerful beast-man she believes is her enemy, despite her overwhelming attraction. Eden must change to survive but only if she can redefine her ideas of beauty and of love, along with a little help from her "adopted aunt" Emily Dickinson.

Review:
This book would have had a lot of promise to be a great and enjoyable novel if the main character hadn't been such an idiot. Eden is extremely self-deprecating and willing to do anything to get the attention of a guy. Throughout the novel she makes one bad decision after another and its like she never learns from her mistakes.I can't say I enjoyed this novel but I read through it to see if Eden gets better or more interesting. She didn't. I liked the fact that this novel showed prejudice from a different point of view and I guess I have to take that into consideration when I think about Eden's personality flaws. At the same time there were quite a few things in the novel that just didn't add up to me like the fact that most people didn't go outside because it was supposed to be dangerous but then all of a sudden Eden is outside all the time with no consequences. I can't say I recommend this novel since I really didn't enjoy it but I guess I'll still read the next one when it comes out to see if it improves.